Thanks Damian. I'm a few game days behind in the AAR but Hiryu is about to make port at Kwajalein. Just 1 known sub(being hunted) and a mine field (being cleared) to get past. Her flotation is normal and fires are out but system damage is at 49.... a bit of R & R coming up for the crew.

i believe its normal to count a point of system damage for every fire-point that goes out don't know the rules of thumb for it since i haven't been in the position yet (i did get a CV bombed in the guadal scenario, but with no repair facilities in the scenario i didn't monitor her situation after making port)

so to say a carrier with 50 fires isn't likely to make port if she has a lot of system damages as well (depending a bit on distance to port & the facilities over there)

Thanks Damian. I'm a few game days behind in the AAR but Hiryu is about to make port at Kwajalein. Just 1 known sub(being hunted) and a mine field (being cleared) to get past. Her flotation is normal and fires are out but system damage is at 49.... a bit of R & R coming up for the crew.

i believe its normal to count a point of system damage for every fire-point that goes out don't know the rules of thumb for it since i haven't been in the position yet (i did get a CV bombed in the guadal scenario, but with no repair facilities in the scenario i didn't monitor her situation after making port)

so to say a carrier with 50 fires isn't likely to make port if she has a lot of system damages as well (depending a bit on distance to port & the facilities over there)

Hi flaggelant

Just to help out here are the day be day damage stats for Hiryu up the current turn where she has one day of sailing before making Kwajalein.

28 07 35 day she was hit by planes from Enterprise 39 06 13 fires now well under control(fires down 22 but system damage only up 11) 47 07 06 fires now down by 7 and system damage up by 8 49 01 02 fires now down by 4 and system damage up by 2 49 00 00 Situation stable

Seems that as fires go out system damage does rise but the worst system damage is when the fire is at its worst then as the crew get a handle on the fires less system damage should be expected. I would also expect that the system damage will rise albeit at a slower rate as the crew have time to discover how much of the ship's systems were destroyed by the fires.

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Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Sea: PTs TM-10, TM-11 and TM-12 locate a small transport task force near Singkawant and between them put one torpedo into AP Meiten Maru. See subs for more grief visited upon this ship.

Central Pacific

Sea:Hiryu still looking good.

Subs

Near Singkawang SS O21 puts one torpedo into AP Meiten Maru which brings total damage up to 75 96 32.

Naval Losses for the Day

AP Zenyo Maru, AP Shinyu Maru

Comments

The attack at Taung Gyi was a little too ambitious. The troops here will dig in for a while and wait it out while the more important attempt to take Mandalay is played out. Deliberate attack at Johore Bahru was not meant to happen today and the damage to the Japanese forces is less than I expected it might have been has not all forces went in on this attack. Changsa continues to look promising with fort level coming down again.

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Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Land: Japanese deliberate attack at Clark Field causes 847 Japanese casualties and 31 guns and 4 vehicles lost to 1584 Allied casualties and 40 guns and 2 vehicles lost. Assault odds are at 0 to 1 but fort levels are reduced to level 3.

At Naga Japanese bombardment attack causes 26 Japanese casualties and 8 guns lost to 45 Allied casualties and 1 gun lost.

Air: Singapore is bombed by 20 Nell escorted by 22 Zero. 1 Buffalo is destroyed and on the ground the Allied forces sustain 50 casualties and 2 guns lost.

Burma

Land: Japanese deliberate attack at Mandalay achieves assault odds of 142 to 1 and reduces the forts to level 1. Japanese forces suffer 109 casualties with 2 guns and 1 vehicle lost. Allied casualties amount to 66 with 5 guns lost and the minimal Allied forces present retreat across the river towards Lashio.

At Singkawang PG Hasidate is hit by 2 torpedoes fired from SS O21 and she sustains 37 64 27 damage. PCs Shonan Maru # 7 and Shonan Maru #6 along withPGs Eifuku Maru, Uji and Saga take up the attack and report 3 hits on the sub.

Naval Losses for the Day

Nil reported.

Comments

I haven’t reported the unsuccessful air attacks but this turn saw a very concerted effort and a couple of very well coordinated air attacks on my naval forces around Singkawang by Todd’s Dutch air force. Fortunately Ashigara and Saga were the only casualties and will return after some port attention.

Mandalay was given only a token defense and has now fallen. My forces in Burma are much stretched and will need to time to regroup and await reinforcement after some of the other land campaigns have concluded. A very good result though in such a short space of time.

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Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Japanese forces at Wuchow undertake a deliberate attack reducing the fortifications to level 1 and achieving assault odds of 3 to 1 and the base is captured. Japanese loses amounted to 1209 casualties, 22 guns and 1 vehicle lost. The Chinese had reported loses of 677 casualties and 11 guns lost. The 4th War Area, 9th Group Army, 4th Chinese Corps and 65th Chinese Corps retreat in the direction of Hengchow.

DD Ellet is reported sunk as a result of the carrier action against the Enterprise task force.

Comments

The fall of Wuchow was a welcome result. The action here was only meant to be a diversion from the main action at Changsa but I now have a useful base to work out of and put some further pressure on the Chinese forces in this sector.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Land: At Johore Bahru a Japanese deliberate attack reduces the forts to level 3 and achieves assault odds of 3 to 1. Japanese loses are reported at 1732 casualties with 72 guns and 8 vehicles lost to 538 Allied casualties and 11 guns lost.

Air: At Clark Field 49 Betty and 13 Helen escorted by 5 Zero bomb 31st USA Regimental Combat Team causing 167 casualties and 1 gun lost. The attack was opposed by a CAP of 2 P-35A and 1 of these planes was shot down.

In a further attack at Clark Field 15 Betty and 14 Helen target 45th Regimental Combat Team and cause 33 casualties.

South Eastern Pacific

Land: The undefended base at Sag Sag is captured.

DEI

Land: Japanese deliberate attack at Tarakan reduces the forts to level 1 and achieves assault odds of 90 to 1 and the base is captured. Japanese loses are 103 casualties and 1 gun lost to 309 Allied casualties and 6 guns lost. VII Garrison Battalion and 2nd DAF Base Force retreat whilst Tarakan Coastal Battalion surrenders.

Air: At Tarakan 3 Martin 139 make it through the 2 Claude CAP and land 1 bomb on BB Hyuga causing no damage.

Subs

At Tarakan my ASW task force obtains 1 hit on SS KXVIII.

At Tarakan SS KXVIII then strikes with 1 torpedo hit on DD Ayanami causing 45 48 12 damage. KXXVIII is then hunted by other destroyers in the task force and 2 hits are reported on the submarine.

Off shore from BruneiSS O23 hitsDD Satsuki with 1 torpedo causing 39 71 26 damage. The other destroyers in this ASW task force returns fire and report 2 hits on this submarine.

Southwest of Pearl Harbour SS I-1 is hit 8 times by a mixed DMS and DD task force.

Naval Losses for the Day

Nil reported.

Comments

Sub action has moved up a notch with hits being traded on both sides. I-1 is just south of Pearl hoping to make contact with any stragglers from the Enterprise group but it seems that she has become the hunted.

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Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Land: At Changsha Japanese deliberate attack reduces forts to level 0 and achieves assault odds of 2 to 1 and the base is captured. Japanese loses are 2224 casualties with 86 guns and 7 vehicles lost to 1530 Allied casualties and 40 guns lost. 1 I-16c is destroyed on the airfield. 22nd Group Army, 4th and 2nd New Chinese Corps and the 44th, 191st, 81st, 51st, 57th and 89th Chinese Corps are seen retreating towards Hengchow.

Philippines

Land: Japanese deliberate attack at Clark Field reduces forts to level 2 and achieve 1 to 1 assault odds and cause 1412 Japanese casualties with 65 guns and 14 vehicles lost to 1093 Allied casualties and 47 guns lost.

Land: Japanese deliberate attack at Clark Field achieves 0 to 1 odds and without effect on the level 2 forts. The Japanese report 183 casualties and 4 guns lost to 196 Allied casualties and 11 guns lost. The Allied return fire causes 11 Japanese casualties.

Not a great deal happening this turn with China going through a reorganization of troop deployments. The assault at Clark Field wasn’t meant to happen. I suspect I missed a unit and off it went… Good thing about the Japanese Army – you can always find a hot head to blame.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

have you considered an assault on Chungking before marching on Henchow, to cut the army in half?

if you just push them back all the time they'll end up piling up in Chungking, If you'r able to split the army into fragments you might be able to crush them one at a time (without doing so in a city hex)

And on your Clark Field hot head, thats probably a very disrupted unit right now, might want to check his disruption lvl before the next assault

and a screenshot would be nice to see, China will be looking a bit different from the last screeny i believe

have you considered an assault on Chungking before marching on Henchow, to cut the army in half?

if you just push them back all the time they'll end up piling up in Chungking, If you'r able to split the army into fragments you might be able to crush them one at a time (without doing so in a city hex)

And on your Clark Field hot head, thats probably a very disrupted unit right now, might want to check his disruption lvl before the next assault

and a screenshot would be nice to see, China will be looking a bit different from the last screeny i believe

Hi flaggelant

good thoughts there on rounding up some Chinese in the open.

Firstly I'm about 6 days behind in my AAR and things have moved on and I have made a commitment to assaulting Henchow. Tocaff has 6 units there I think and I have 1 more hex to cover before the city is encircled. I'm working on making sure that the blockading units have some reasonable size to them although for the time being they shouldn't cause the Chinese too much trouble should they decide to abandon the city.

Secondly because I'm playing with a self imposed rule of using troops to cover my rail and roads in the occupied area of China I'm not using all the units I suspect most Japanese players use against the Chinese. Therefore and also because it is my first PBEM I've leant towards being fairly conservative with what I expect to capture in China. I'm more than happy with what I have achieved so far and to be honest I thought that Changsa would have taken much longer to get than it did.

Thirdly... I now have some thing to ponder as I had not really thought so far down the track as to be thinking of mounting an attack on Chungking. I'll be giving it some though now.

Sorry about the screenshots. I've been a bit stretched just keeping up a the moment especially that my game with Ambassador is on the move again. I do have screen shots coming when I write up the end of January and also have leave from work for a few weeks so something more than the written word is coming up. I will be away for the week end though so it will have to wait until next week.

Can't remember what happened with the 'hothead' unit at Clark Field but things worked out ok there.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Land: At Johore Bahru a deliberate Japanese attack reduces the forts to level 2 and achieves assault odds of 3 to 1. Japanese loses amount to 928 casualties with 27 guns and 1 vehicle lost against 839 Allied casualties and 20 guns lost. Not quite enough to force a retreat.

Air: At Singapore 20 Sally and 20 Lily bomb No. 112 Base Force and cause 22 casualties. Flak accounts for 2 Sally and 5 Lily destroyed. Ouch, this place is still a hive of activity.

Burma

Land: Japanese bombardment at Taung Gyi causes 8 Allied casualties.

Philippines

Land: Japanese bombardment at Naga causes 8 Japanese casualties and 1 gun lost with 15 Allied casualties.

Japanese bombardment at Clark Field causes 269 Allied casualties and 7 guns lost.

Air: At Clark Field 44 Betty and 13 Helen bomb 31st USA Regimental Combat Team and cause 55 casualties and 2 guns lost. Also at Clark Field 45th PS Regimental Combat Team is bombed by 20 Betty and 7 Helen and loses 95 casualties.

Again another day without a great deal to report. The land action in Malaya and the Philippines continues towards a hoped for resolution in the near future whilst the China front continues to undergo some troop redeployments.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Land: Japanese deliberate attack at Johore Bahru only achieves assault odds of 0 to 1. (Must have been a unit left on attack as the max assault was only 1 which was adjusted to 0 against the Allied defense of 176 adjusted to 133). All in all a good result for a slip up with only 26 Japanese casualties and 1 gun lost to 103 Allied casualties and 2 guns lost.

SS I-1 is set upon again south of Pearl Harbour by DDs MacDonough, Worden, Maury and Perkins and MSW Bobolink and 3 hits are registered. This along with the damage sustained last turn is enough to sink I-1.

South of Pearl Harbour SS I-9 is set upon byDMS Lamberton, Trevor, Hopkins and Hovey and DDs Lawrence and Crane and registers 7 hits resulting in damage of 21 17 00.

Here is the list of sunk ships to the end of January 1942. Todd has made it very hard work to catch up with any of his shipping apart from the sitting ducks at the Philippines. Managing to get a result that put 1 CV, 1CA, 1CL and 2DD on this list was most satisfying. The significant totals on this list are my transports which have been getting hit and tocaffs cargo ships. Submarines are about even although the US subs caught in harbour at Manila helped a lot.

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Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Here is the list of my shipping that is of concern regarding flotation problems as of 31 January 1942.

As can be seen from this list Miike Maru is still shown as hanging in there. Sometime overnight on the 31st January and 1st February Miike Maru gave up the fight and went down. As the box at the bottom right shows the flooding never was under control and over the last week it simply became an inexorable force working to destroy this vessel.

This leaves Hashidate at Kuching as most in jeopardy at the moment. I had her written off when struck by a torpedo (possibly even 2 if memory serves correctly) but her she is refusing to go down. Of the 3 destroyers on the list Satsuki is most in trouble with a 71. Ayanami and Isonami should be ok from this point on. Baikal Maru and Isonami are the only ships remaining from the task force that Enterprise nailed at Wake Island. They will remain there until the flooding is under control before making the journey back to repair yards in Japan. If I can get both back and repaired I will consider this as something of a small victory as all the ships in that task force would have been sunk if Enterprise had of stayed for 1 more day.

Hiryu also makes an appearance on the list. Her flooding was quickly bought under control but the bomb that hit her, coupled with a ferocious fire, did significant damage and she will be in the yard for a while clearing the 49 system damage she now has.

Haruna is the other major combatant with damage. After spending some time at Hong Kong she has now moved to Shanghai to complete the repairs. She is moving along well after having system damage in the mid 20s from a torpedo attack.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

I lost 15 DD's on 1st of januari, my opponent lost more as well, but seeing only 1 lost DD is an awesome result

could you explain moving Haruna from Hongkong to Shanghai? both ports have plenty of repair points, the only reason i could come up with is a fleet HQ? (i sent one to Hongkong, to do the job over there)

Would you consider it valuable that your subs remain around PH at this point? i ordered most subs back for other duties, and those that stayed are at about 10 to 15 hexes out of the island, to avoid being ASW-ed

I lost 15 DD's on 1st of januari, my opponent lost more as well, but seeing only 1 lost DD is an awesome result

could you explain moving Haruna from Hongkong to Shanghai? both ports have plenty of repair points, the only reason i could come up with is a fleet HQ? (i sent one to Hongkong, to do the job over there

Would you consider it valuable that your subs remain around PH at this point? i ordered most subs back for other duties, and those that stayed are at about 10 to 15 hexes out of the island, to avoid being ASW-ed

Hi Flaggelant

Thanks for the praise. I came close to mixing it up with the ABDA fleet once and I'm glad I didn't as my fleet was a lot smaller and was sure to have come off the worse. That would have made the figures read a whole lot differently. All in all good figures so far but tocaff has plenty of ships left and he has drawn a line in the sand somewhere so I'm sure he will commit when I trip the wire.

15 destroyers within a month of the start.... ouch.

Haruna in Shanghai... me just being fickle and wanting to use Hong Kong to repair an AK I've taking a liking too.

Those subs that got pounded at Pearl I sent there in the hope of picking up one of the wounded from the Enterprise task force. It was close to Pearl but the only point I could make an intercept. That didn't happen and I lost 2 subs in the process.... guess that puts a blemish on the hunt for Enterprise. As a first timer PBEM, though, I'm learning the pitfalls of getting too close to Allied ASW.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

i was looking at the tracker screens but i noticed i had some higher HI productions at some locations, even though i never upgraded any..?

when i started using tracker i was adviced to standardize the database with the folowing link;

quote:

ORIGINAL: n01487477 NY59Giants is correct, however you might start by loading a cluster before rechecking & assigning bases to regions... see here for details. Then re-post the screen shots above and we'll talk more...

Land: At Johore Bahru a Japanese deliberate attack reduces the forts to level 1 and achieves assault odds of 25 to 1. The base is captured and the Allied forces (22nd and 27th Australian Brigades – nice to see the Australian troops holding the last line of defense) retreat to Singapore. Japanese loses reported at 371 casualties and 14 guns lost to 476 Allied casualties and 14 guns lost.

China

Land: Japanese deliberate attack south of Changsha achieves assault odds of 1356 to 1 resulting in 118 Japanese casualties and 2 guns lost to 855 Chinese casualties and 17 guns lost. The Chinese continue their retreat after the recent loss of Changsha.

Philippines

Air: At Clark Field 17 Betty and 9 Helen bomb 31st Regimental Combat Team and cause 58 casualties and 2 guns lost. Later in the day 46 Betty and 7 Helen strike at 45th PS Regimental Combat Team and cause 154 casualties and 3 guns lost.

Air: At Kuantan 7 Blenheim escorted by 3 Buffalo make a bombing run on the airfield. 3 Zero and 1 Oscar rise to meet them. 2 Buffalo and 1 Oscar are destroyed and the bombers score 1 runway hit.

Burma

Land: Japanese bombardment causes 4 Allied casualties and 1 gun lost.

Air: At Taung Gyi 19 Helen bomb BFF Brigade and cause 16 casualties.

China

Air: At Hengchow 10 Sonia escorted by 8 Oscar make a bombing run only to be met by 6 Tomahawk. Without causing any damage 1 Oscar and 2 Sonia are destroyed. A second raid by 8 Ann meets the same 6 Tomahawk and again do no damage and loose 1 of their number destroyed.

Air: 22 Nell escorted by 24 Zero, operating out of Kuching, raid Banjarmasin. They are met by a CAP of 5 Brewster 339D of which 3 are destroyed and the bombers score 1 airbase supply hit and 2 runway hits.

Air: At Singapore ISF Base Force is bombed by 11 Nell, 3 Sally and 9 Lily. 1 Nell is destroyed and in return 33 Allied casualties and 1 gun lost is reported. In a further raid, this time by 9 Nell, 27 Sally and 18 Lily, No. 111 RAF Base Force is targeted and sustains 141 casualties and 5 guns lost. 1 Nell is destroyed in the raid.

Land: Southwest of Hengchow a Chinese shock attack achieves assault odds of 0 to 1 and the Chinese lose 282 casualties and 1 gun lost. A Japanese shock attack at the same location achieves assault odds of 69 to 1 and encourages the Chinese units to retreat. It appears the both sides moved into this hex at the same time with the Japanese holding their ground.

Air: At Hengchow 22nd Group Army is bombed by 7 Ann and 10 Sally for the loss of 78 casualties.

Philippines

Land: Deliberate Japanese attack at Clark Field against Allied troops who appear to have returned achieves 119 to 1 assault odds. Japanese forces suffer 806 casualties with 14 guns and 2 vehicles lost against 1065 Allied casualties and 17 guns lost. The Allied forces retreat.

Land: At Samarinda Japanese shock attack reduces fort to level 2 and achieves 23 to 1 assault odds. The base is captured and the Allied forces retreat to the south. Japanese loses reported as 33 casualties and 1 gun lost to 113 Allied casualties and 5 guns lost.

The bulk of the Japanese forces has forced the causeway and has established at Singapore having achieved excellent assault odds during the forcing of the crossing. I’m not sure what was going on at Clark Field but it appears a substantial force wanted to party and got spanked.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Land: More troops arrive at Singapore causing another Japanese shock attack at 0 to 1 assault odds. Japanese losses reported at 658 casualties, 23 guns and 1 vehicle lost to 243 Allied casualties and 7 guns lost.

The survivors from Rabaul are too powerful for the small force currently attacking it. Reinforcements are on the way to deal with them. The same can be said for the British troops holed up at Taung Gyi – more troops will have to enter the fray to successful seize this town.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

Land: More Japanese troops cross the causeway and trigger another shock attack. This time Japanese losses stand at 348 casualties and 7 guns lost to the Allies 1063 casualties and 3 guns lost.

Air: At Singapore 8 Nell and 9 Lily bomb 2nd ISF Base Force and cause 21 casualties with 1 Nell destroyed. Later in the day a raid by 10 Sally and 13 Lily targets No. 109 RN Base Force and causes 138 casualties and 1 gun lost. Not long after No. 113 RAF Base Force receives the attention of 3 Nell, 13 Sally and 4 Lily and loses 57 casualties, 2 guns and 1 vehicle lost. The 1 Buffalo that flew as CAP took on the 20 Oscar flying escort and was destroyed. A further raid by 7 Nell, 36 Sally and 18 Lily also targeted No.113 RN Base Force. This time 1 Sally and 1 Lily were lost whilst the Allied force lost 116 casualties and 2 guns and 1 vehicle lost.

At Kuantan 6 Blenheim tries for another attack on the base. This time they are met by 13 Zero and 4 of the attacking planes are shot from the sky.

China

Land: Japanese bombardment at Hengchow causes 11 Japanese casualties and 3 guns lost to 213 Allied casualties and 2 guns lost.

TK Anastasia (scuttled near Brisbane after being torpedoed several days ago)

Comments

The shock attacks at Singapore continue to achieve good results even though assault odds are only 0 to 1. The aerial assault on Singapore has also met with good success and minimal loses whilst the attack on Kuantan provided good practice for the Zero pilots on duty.

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Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

On the night of 7/8 February 1942 the anchorage for transports bringing in supplies to the fledgling base and airfield at Gili Gili was being guarded by a surface action group built around BB Mutsu. Her consorts were CLs Katori, Tenryu and Tatsuta andDDs Shiokaze, Wakatake, Kuretake and Sanae. Tonight there were transports off loading at the anchorage. Apart from dodging regular raids by Hudson bombers operating form Port Moresby the waters of the South East Pacific had been clear of enemy shipping. This night was to be different.

The peaceful night was broken by the sounds of explosions as Tenryu and Tatsuta were each hit by a torpedo. Stung by the surprise of this attack and the rain of shells falling around their ships (and starting to find targets) the Japanese seaman quickly found their quarry and returned fire. A short and sharp fire fight ensued although the Japanese line was much reduced after Tenryu and Tatsuta fell out to deal with serious flooding. It soon became apparent that the Allied fleet was substantial. Hits were reported on ships believed to be CAs Australia and Canberra, CLs Leander, Achilles and Perth andDDs Bulmer, Stuart and Voyager. Mustu recorded 6 hits which caused no damage, however, Katori and Shiokaze each took 4 hits that caused worrying damage. Before long the Allied fleet had broken off leaving the Japanese to hope that they had done enough to protect the transports at their anchorage.

Not far away 12 transports under the watchful eye ofDDs Hatsuharu, Nenohi, Hatsushima and Wakaba were making haste to clear the anchorage after receiving the report of enemy warships in the vicinity. They were hastened in their task when the 4 destroyers raced off and began engaging rapidly approaching warships. Nenohi died under a hail of 8 inch shells and the other 3 destroyers all took hits with Wakaba the most serious with 7 shell hits. One of the enemy cruisers, believed to be Australia was believed to have been struck by a torpedo and at least 9 shell hits. One of the enemy destroyers (reported as Alden) was thought to have taken 3 shell hits. The transports successfully scattered with only Kanayamasan Maru suffering from 3 shells hits. It was enough though to cause her serious damage. Before long the Allied ships broke off and left the field of battle leaving a number of Japanese ships fighting fires and trying to stem serious flooding.

_____________________________

Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'

any chance to retaliate against the TF from the air (rabaul should be within betty & zero range)?

one other thing came to my mind reading the battle report;

Katori is a speed 18 CL, making her the slowest ship in the TF in my game she was sunk at midway escorting a transport force (thats why i know she's a bit slow ) (i understand they're suposed to be escorting the transports, but she might have been better of within the transport TF instead of the combat compartment)

i usually use the speed 18 CL's for transport missions with light to medium expected resistance, that way the DD's have a bit more support, minimizing losses (not that my 15 lost DD's actually show that atm...)

you might want to check where the rest of the speed 18 CL's are at, because there are 3 or 4 of them i believe.